Method and apparatus for making upholstering edging



Feb. 23, 1932. F. L. SMITH METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING UPI-IOLSTERING EDGING Filed March 29, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEYS.

Feb. 23, 1932. s l 1,846,369

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING UPHOLSTERING EDGING .Filed March 29, 1928 2 Sheets-Swat 2 ATTORNEYS.

Patented Feb. 23, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FRANK L. SMITH, F COLUMBIANA, OHIO Application filed March 29, 1928. Serial No. 265,710.

This invention relates to improvements in the method and appartus for the making of upholstering molding or edging for furniture.

The primary object of this. invention is the provision of an improved method for the expeditious fabrication of edging or upholstering molding, of uniform quality. It is the present practice to provide upholstering edging or molding by stitching a flexible fabric casing in place and rolling the filling material thereinto by hand and subsequently stitching the same. By the improved method the fabric tube or casing is initially prepared and stuffed in a novel manner to insure the uniform packing of the moss or filling therein, in relatively long lengths of the molding, which may be subsequently cut to the proper size and applied with ease, and with low production cost for the article of furniture upon which it is desired to use the same.

A further object of this invention is the provision of improved apparatus for the manufacture of upholstering edging.

A further object of this invention is the provision of an improved article of manufacture. in the nature of upholstering edging ,which is of uniformly compacted nature, and which will hold its shape.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent during the course of the following detailed description.

In the accompanying drawings, wherein for the purpose ofillustration is shown but a preferred embodiment of this invention,

Figure 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a fabric casing. in tube form, prior to the" reception of the filling therein.

Figure 2 is an end view of the fabric tubing, unfilled.

Figure 3 is an end view of apparatus used to receive the fabric casing, as an incident of the filling thereof.

Figure 4: shows the apparatus of Figure 3, with the fabric tubing in position to receive filling material, such as hair, fiber, moss, or the like.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary front elevation of the improved appartus, with the fabric tubing therein, and placed to receive the fillmg.

Figure 6 is aplan view of details shown in Figure 5, with part of the fabric casing receiving tube broken away to illustrate how 5 the filling is placed in the fabric casing.

Figure 7 is a transverse sectional View taken across a sample of the fabric cover after the filling has been placed therein.

Figure Sshows a further step in the preparation of the edging, in which the stuffed fabric cylinder is rolled intoa substantially flattened and shaped condition.

Figures 9, 10 and 11 are views illustrating the stitching of the edging in order that it will retain the shape which it is desired the same shall have when placed upon the upholstered furniture.

Figure 12 is a fragmentary perspective view of the improved fabric molding or edging.

In the drawings, wherein similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, the letter A may generally designate the improved upholstering edging or molding, whichcomprises a flexible or preferably fabric casing 25, wherein filling material 44 is disposed. Apparatus D is used to receive the fabric casing 25 in the step of filling the same; the roll of material received from the apparatus D being subsequently operated upon by means E to flatten the same.

As a first step in the method, the fabric casing, preferably a long strip, and which may be burlap or any other approved flexible durable material. is doubled upon itself longitudinally, and stitched longitudinally along its meeting margins, as shown at 15 in Figure 1 of the drawings, to provide a sort of tubular casing, 25 which may be expanded into the form of an elongated cylinder as shown in Figures 1 and 2 of the drawings. From the stitching 15, to the parallel longitudinal edges thereof, the marginal flaps 16 are sufliciently wide to permit stitching to the seat or other portion of the article of furniture upon which to be secured, as more fully appears in my Patent No. 1,781,086, dated November 11, 1930.

The apparatus D preferably consists of an elongated supporting block or platform 20, upon the upper surface of which is mounted a cylindrical form 21, consisting of half cylindrical complementary segments 22 and 28. The cylinder 21, in fact, is a tube splitor divided longitudinally and diametrically into halves, with the half segment 22 attached by screws or like elements 24 upon the platform 20, with the convex side thereof facing the platform 20, and the concavity facing upwardly or counter thereto for receiving the fabric casing 25 therein. The half cylinder portion 23 is hingedlv connected at 27 to a longitudinal margin of the section 22, and is swingable upwardly and over the base, so as to permit the reception and removal of the tubular fabric casing 25 with respect to the brass tubing 21. Of course, the tubing 21 is of any. desired length, consistent with the length in which it is desired to form the upholstering edging. On the top of the base 20, at spaced intervals, uprights 29 may be provided, upon the upper ends of which swingable clamps 30 are pivoted, as by means 31, so that the same will swing from an inop-' erative position into a clamping relation above the hinged section 23 of the tubing 21, when the sections 22 and 23 are arranged in their cylindrical complementary relation, in order to hold and clamp said sections 22 and 23 in their cylinder forming relation, as shown in Figure 4 of the drawings.

It is of course obvious that after the formation of the fabric casing 25, the latter is placed in the concavity of the section 22, and the marginal flaps 16 of the stitching 15 are placed at the juncture where the meeting edges of the sections 22 and 23 join, as shown in Figure 3, so that when the tubing sections 22 and 23 are clamped, as shown in Figure 4, the fabric flaps 16 will extend beyond the juncture of the meeting edges thereof. This places the fabric casing 25 in a cylinder forming relation within the tubing 21, and the latter holds the fabric tubing in shape to receive the filling, which may be compacted therein with uniformity and without destorting or stretching any portion of the fabric casing 25.

At the time of clamping the fabric casing- 25 in the shaping tubing 21, an end portion of the casing 25 extends beyond an end of the tubing 21, as shown in Figure 5, and it is folded back, at 40, over the end of the form 21, to hold open this end of the fabric casing 25, and permit the filling material to be inserted therein.

The filling material may be fiber, hair, cotton, or any of the well known fillings used in the upholstering or furniture making art. It is placed in the end of the fabric casing 25 which is open at 40, and pushed longitudinally through the tubing 25, to the opposite end thereof. The filling material, shown at 44, in

Figure 6 of the drawings, compacts in the tubing as it is pushed therealong, and has sufficient frictional engagement in the fabric casing to permit of its proper compacting in a uniform relation. A plunger 46, which may be an ordinary rod, with or without a. head thereon, is used to pack the filling 44, as shown in Figures 5 and 6 of the drawings, and the packing operation continues until the fabric casing 25 for thelength of the form or shaping tubing 21 is filled in a uniform and properly compacted relation. The sections of the tubing 21 are then opened, and the edging in substantially the cylindrical form shown in Figure 7, with the filler therein, is removed from the tubing form 21. The now cylindrical shaped edging is ready for the apparatus E, which merely consist of a pair of suitably mounted rollers 50, properly spaced, and with rolling surfaces which may be shaped to suit; the cylindrical shaped edging being fed into the space 51 between the rollers 50, and there flattened or shaped incident to the compression action which is placed thereon as it travels between the rollers.

The edging with its filling therein is so fed between the rollers 50 that the fabric flaps or marginal portions 16 do not project directly beyond the adjacent side of the edging after passing from the rollers 50, but rather the flaps 16, as shown in Figure 8 of the drawings, are overlapped by a side marginal .portion of the filled flattened edging, for a purpose which is apparent in my co-pending application above mentioned, to enable the more efficient attachment of the edging to the article of furniture upon which it is desired to place the same.

The edging after passing between the rollers 5O retains its somewhat flattened condition, and immediately thereafter it is sewed by the sewing machine L in a plurality of spaced rows of stitching longitudinally of the edging. The machine L is used to produce the longitudinal row of stitches 52 adjacent the flaps 16, and thereafter substantially along the central portion of the edging a second and parallel row of stitches 53 is provided longitudinally of the edging, and finally a third row of stitches 54 is provided along the opposite margin of the edging. The stitches of each of the rows 52, 53 and 54 extend from one side of the fabric casing 25 to the opposite side thereof, thru the filling ma. terial received therein, and the edging is thus retained in the cross section desired. This cross section may be slightly altered during the stitching operation, so that at the central row of stitches 53 the edging is slightly thicker than at the rows of stitches 52 and 54. In other words, from the central longitudinal line of stitching the thickness of the edging slightly diminishes towards the longitudinal fill - moving the roll from neeaaee side edges thereof, as shown in Figure 12 of the drawings.

In using the above method and apparatus for forming the edging, an improved flexible upholstering molding or edging is provided, which has a uniform texture and thickness throughout the length thereof, in which the filling is properly compacted. The method and apparatus materially lessens the cost of producing the edging, in addition to the ob taining of a superior article.

Various changes in the steps of the method of producing the edging, in the apparatus for producing the edging, and in the article of manufacture, may be made to the described steps of the method and form of apparatus, without departing from the splrlt of the invention or the scope of the claims.

I claim:

1. The method of providing upholstering edging which consists of first preparing an elongated tubular flexible casing having a narrow pocket therein of substantially uni form width throughout the length of the casing, placing the casing loosely in a rigid shaping tube with the pocket entirely in the tube. and packing upholstering filling in the tubular casing from an end thereof in a uniform compacted relation into expanded relation with the walls of said shaping tube to provide an elongated roll of substantially uniform cross section from end to end.

2. The method of providing upholstering edging which consists in first preparing a laterally enclosed elongated tubular flexible casing having a pocket therein of uniform width throughout the length of the casing, placing the casing in a rigid shaping tube with the pocket entirely in the tube, packing upholstering filling in the tubular casing in a uniform compacted relation into expanded relation with the walls of said shaping tube to provide an elongated roll of substantially circular cross section from end to end, rethe shaping tube, subjecting the roll to a compression action to flatten the same into edging strip form, and longitudinally stitching the thus provided edging strip through the tubular casing from top to bottom and through the upholstery filling therein for permanently shaping the edging strip into the desired form.

3. The method of making stuffed upholstery edging which consists in doubling an elongated strip of fabric longitudinally between the edges thereof upon itself and stitching the marginal edges together to provide an elongated pocketed laterally enclosed casing in which the pocket is of substantially uniform width throughout the length of the casing, placing the fabric tube in a rigid tubular shaping form with the pocket entirely in the form, and stuffing the fabric casing with upholstery filling from an end of the shaping form into expanded relaproviding upholstery in preparing an eloning in a substantially tubular rigid form of complementary parts with the flap clamped at the juncture of said parts, and stufling the fabriccasing with upholstery filling from an end thereof in a compacted relation to the shape of said form and to the juncture of the attaching flapwith the tubular casing.

5. In the method of providing upholstery filling the steps which consist in providing an elongated substantially tubular fabric casing, placing the same in a rigid substantially tubular form with an open end portion of the fabric casing projecting beyond an end of the tubular form, overlapping said end of the fabric casing exteriorly about an end of the form to hold open the pocket of the tubular casing at said end of the form, and stuffing upholstery filling into the casing from the open end of the same.

6. In the method of providing upholstering edging the steps which consist in providing a flexible laterally closed tubular casing having a laterally extending attaching flap longitudinally thereof, filling the casing with upholstering filling by packing the same therein from an end of the casing and next adjacent the juncture of said attaching flap with the casing, and longitudinally stitching the easing from top to bottom to assume a noncircular cross sectional shape with the attaching flap secured adjacent to but inwardly of a longitudinal side edge thereof.

In a device for forming stuffed uphol stering edging the combination of a base, a pair of complementary shaping sections hingedly connected together, means attaching one of said sections rigidly to the base with the other section upwardly of the base and swingable thereabove, and means to clamp the last mentioned section upon the section which is attached to the base into a complementary form for receiving and forming the upholstering edging therein.

8. In apparatus for providing stuffed upholstering edging the combination of complementary rigid elongated shaping sections movably connected together so that the same when moved together will provide an clon gated laterally enclosed passageway which will longitudinally open when the sections are moved away from each other, a base, means rigidly connecting one of the sections to the base, and releasable clamping means carried by the base for clamping the section which is not attached to the base in a complementary closing relation on the section which is attached to the base.

9. In apparatus of the class described an elongated base, a concavo-convex shell rigidly attached longitudinally to the base with its concavity facing upwardly away from the base, a second concavo-convex elongated shell hingedly connected at a longitudinal edge thereof to an edge of the first mentioned shell in a complementary shaping form relation therewith, supporting posts on the base, and swingable clamps on the posts which may be moved to clamp upon the last mentioned shell to hold the same in a complementary closed form relation with the first mentioned shell FRANK L. SMITH. 

